show and tell

Marc Jacobs Explains All the Smoke and Mirrors — Er, Kilts and Mirrors

Marc Jacobs’s soaring 2009 collection was a mixed-up masterpiece, with plaids and prints and jackets galore. We scored some magical face time with the man of the week to find out what’s up with the kilts and all those mirrors on the runway. (Yes, they were a statement.)

This color palette was comfortable, easy, fresh.
I wanted it to be colors, and it was the idea of taking colors to another level. I also wanted pattern without print, so a lot of them were woven, yarn-dyed fabrics, etc. And I liked using the patterns as if they were solid and not being bothered by whether or not they worked together. There were things that were very mundane but done very beautifully, from tattersalls to ginghams and the grunge plaid that I love from a flannel shirt, but done in a beautiful voile.

Are you having a plaid moment?
No, just today.

You’ve worn kilts for your bow at both collections.
Yeah, all month.

Why?
I was told August was kilt month so I’m just following the rules. No. They’re comfortable. It’s not really a kilt. It’s kind of like a short and a kilt.

Are you going to bring them back?
No, I was just recently fascinated by the whole men-in-skirts controversy of the nineties. No. I got one and I started wearing it and it made me happy, so I bought more. And now I just can’t stop wearing them.

Why the mirrors on the runway?
I was really interested in the idea of vanity and the idea of reflecting all this color and pattern and having it fragmented and multiplied. It was an idea of multiplicity and endless possibilities and infinity.

Marc Jacobs Explains All the Smoke and Mirrors — Er, Kilts and Mirrors